Illustration of a Zhou-dynasty court official wearing the Dark and Straight Robe, according to Nie Chongyi’s Sanli tu of 961. After the Xinding Sanli tu edition of 1175.

The Confucian Ritual Classics served as foundational texts for the design of the Chinese imperial state cult and elite ancestral rites. As such they necessitated a considerable amount of commentary on the appearance of the ritual objects they mention. Illustrations were essential to this commentarial tradition and come down to us in books from the Song period onward. This symposium, organized in conjunction with the Focus Project exhibition Design by the Book: Chinese Ritual Objects and the Sanli tu, examines the early iterations of classical ritual imagery, notably Nie Chongyi’s Sanli tu of 961, the oldest extant example. Papers will address various aspects of the pictorial genre, from its significance for the study of antiquity and antiquities, to its position in the history of painting, to its utility for designing classical ritual paraphernalia.

10:30 am

Ivan GaskellProfessor, Curator and Head of the Focus Gallery Project, Bard Graduate CenterWelcome